Mental Health: Physical Activity Helps Cut Risk

There are certainly genetic components to many mental health disorders, but could physical activity also reduce the risk of development?

New findings published in the journal Pediatric Exercise Science found that study participants who were "sufficiently active" reduced their risk of developing mental health pathologies from 56 to 54 percent when compared to participants coming from the "insufficiently active" population based on the level of physical activity--ranging from mild or high, respectively.

During the study, researchers analyzed data from 15- and 74-year-olds living in Madrid. Fifteen percent of the population sampled dealt with some type of mental disorder, while 19.8 percent were not active enough.

The methodology used in the study is more comprehensive than other methods used in previous research. The study authors used the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (version 2) to quantify the physical activity that provide data regarding intensity, frequency and length of the physical activities performed in different situations (work, commuting and leisure time) as well as the General Health Questionnaire, which was used to measure the mental health status--detecting psychological morbidity and possible cases of psychiatric disorders in contexts like primary care or general population.

Findings revealed that levels of mental health for those in the study varied according to both their level of exercise in leisure time and their physical activity amount, in total. Those who had high to mild levels of total physical activity showed better levels of mental health, overall. 

While previous studies have revealed similar results, researchers noted that more studies will be needed in order to cement the findings.

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